Alan Watts Being in the Way

Re-familiarizing us with Zen traditions, Alan Watts inspires listeners to move beyond going through the motions of practice. Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode of Being in the Way, Alan Watts explains:Our lack of awareness of the basic structure of the worldThe world itself as meaningless (non-symbolic)Realizing fundamental energy and Zen as the religion of no religionThe metaphysical in terms of the everydayThe composition of Zen practiceHow westerners are bothered by ritual and splendorHow Buddhism has degenerated over the yearsA re-familiarization with Buddhism for modernityThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. “There is this tremendous problem, unless the Buddhist tradition is to go down the drain completely, of re-familiarizing the Japanese with what it’s all about. Over the years it has degenerated into going through the motions and into being something which is just a kind of magic.” – Alan Watts See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Focusing on cosmic balance, Alan Watts outlines the fundamentals of Taoism and how to skillfully interfere with our environment. Find the full Zen and the Art of the Controlled Accident series of talks at play.alanwatts.org. Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts shares a lecture on:The philosophy of TaoismTaoism as the flow of things / the course of natureThe pervasive illusion of separateness and seeing it within our languageHow we only experience the world bit-by-bitA transformation of our everyday consciousness into onenessHow we are all indestructible beyond the egoLife as a game of yin and yang, crests and troughsThe fundamental idea of mutual arisingHow everything we do interferes with our environmentLearning how to interfere skillfullyThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. “We are not ordinarily aware of how we’re aware, and as a result of that, we don’t understand our connection with the world, and we don’t understand what our real self is. We get anxious; we’re afraid that death may be the end of us. This is, of course, the purest superstition, because everybody is indestructible.” – Alan Watts See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Explaining the delicate balance of religiousness, Alan Watts lectures on the principle of leaving no trace. “Religion of No Religion” is part of the Japan Tour 1965 series of talks that you can listen to in full over at the Alan Watts Streaming Channel Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode, Alan Watts explains:How the highest kind of a Buddha is like an ordinary personImitation and how all religious comments about life become clichesThe way of the enlightened man as the track of a bird in the skyZen Buddhism and the dance between metaphysical and ordinaryBalance and compatibility between universality and the particularsThe problem with being too spiritual or too worldlyThe connection of all events in the universe, past, present, and futureHow everything in the universe depends upon each otherThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. “All religion, all religious comments about life, eventually become cliches. That’s why religion always is falling apart and becoming a certain kind of going through the motions, a kind of imitation of attitudes.” – Alan Watts See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In a lecture on symbolic reality versus real reality, Alan Watts explains the importance of total sensory awareness and looking at our motivations. "Symbolic Reality vs. Real Reality" is part of Flow, a three-part session in the TAO for NOW series of talks that you can listen to in full over at the Alan Watts Streaming Channel Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/alan and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts discusses:Being aware of all sensory inputs while meditatingAllowing oneself ‘to be’ in a non-conceptual wayConfusing the world of symbols for realityThe limits to what we can enjoy in a material senseThe uselessness of guiltMoney, tithes, and western religion versus gurusWhy our motivation and intention mattersExperiencing life naked and directlyThe Taoist approach to letting go of your body-mindUsing all five of our senses to witness our surroundingsThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. “The point is to be wide, wide awake and aware of your total sensory input without confusing it with the symbolic world of words and concepts so that you experience life naked and directly. Experience YOU naked and directly, without having in your head the concept of who you are a a role player, as a personality, as an ego.” – Alan Watts See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join us on a journey of contemplation and enlightenment in this captivating introduction to Taoism. Discover the profound wisdom of Taoist philosophy with Alan Watts as he invites us to embrace the course of nature. Through insightful exploration, he delves into the timeless significance of Yin and Yang, illustrating their inseparable connection and guiding us toward a deeper understanding of harmony and balance in existence. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alan In this episode, Alan Watts speaks about:Ancient Chinese philosophiesHow social institutions are mistaken for the real worldThe self, Confucianism, and the roles we play in lifeTaoism and the basic energy of the universeTao as the force of natureHow space and solid are two facets of one realityYang and Yin, positive and negative, male and femaleConscious dying and preparing to let goActing in accordance with natureThis series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts. “It is the inner connection, or rather the inseparability of Yang and Yin, which is what is meant by Tao. That’s why Tao cannot be explained. The reason again if I may put it in another way is that all thinking is classification. It’s asking ‘is you is or is you aint’. Is it this or is it that. After all, if you want to say something is inside it requires an outside. You can’t have an inside without an outside or an outside without an inside.” – Alan Watts See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.